Ruminations: Tourism Fever Hits Russia

"People don't want to wait. Some have relatives. Some have business, some study, some work. Some simply want to go to Europe because they miss it."
"For Serbia, the demand has been growing like an avalanche. It's as if all our company is doing these days is selling tours for Serbia."
Anna Filatovskaya, spokesperson, Russky Express tour agency

Sputnik V vaccine (Pavel Golovkin/AP)
"The WHO has said that it needs more data, and it needs to go back and inspect some production lines where it saw issues early on."
"Those re-inspections are a multiweek process, with good reason. It's not something that they just gloss over lightly."
"[Sputnik V will be approved eventually] maybe not by the end of this year."
Judy Twigg, political science professor, global health, Virginia Commonwealth University

People wait in line at a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Belgrade, Serbia, on Oct. 2. Russians are flocking to Serbia to receive Western-approved COVID-19 shots as Russia's own vaccine, known as Sputnik V, has not been approved by international health authorities. (Darko Vojinovic/The Associated Press)

Russia's vaccination rate is low with a mere 33 percent of the country's 146 million people having received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine and 29 percent fully vaccinated. Russia's main vaccine, home grown like all the others offered for COVID-19 protection in the country, is Sputnik V. There is also a one-dose version named Sputnik Light. And there are two other domestically designed vaccines that have seen use in Russia; none of which have been approved internationally.

It was a matter of national pride when Russian regulators gave their approval to the country's own coronavirus vaccines and initially people receptive to the idea of inoculating themselves against the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID streamed toward injection sites. That original enthusiasm may have waned however and certainly Russian-originated vaccines still await international imprimaturs of approval for even the first of the lot, Sputnik V.

Without that approval from external health authority sources Russians vaccinated by Russian-produced research products are unwelcome at all the travel hot spots they had formerly taken for granted would receive them with open arms. Russians who love to travel and miss their former freedom to go where they wished, sought out alternatives to their dilemma by looking to internationally approved vaccines available elsewhere, but not in Russia.

Gravediggers disinfect the coffin of a COVID-19 victim at a cemetery outside Omsk, Russia, on Thursday. (The Associated Press)

Which is where Serbia comes into the picture, where hundreds of Russians have entered recently for western-approved COVID-19 vaccines. Russians are able to enter the allied Balkan nation visa-less and there they find a wide choice of Western produced vaccines. Soaring demand has seen organized tours for Russians to visit Serbia and while there they enjoy Belgrade hotels, restaurants, bars and vaccination clinics. Tour packages came on the market in mid-September with prices starting at $300 to $700.

Russia's Sputnik V saw approval in 70 countries, including Serbia, but the World Health Organization approval remains under review citing issues at a production plant Among the hurdles in approval is a lack of full scientific information and manufacturing sites inspections, according to WHO assistant director-general Dr.Mariangela Simao. Sputnik V still awaits approval from the European Medicines Agency for travel limitations to be lifted for those with the Russian formulae.

In Serbia can be found the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines. Croatia is now also being visited by Russian tourists where the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be administered with no need for a return and a second dose as with the others. The Serbian population has reached around a 50 percent vaccination rate. According to official Serbian government data, close to 160,000 foreigners have been vaccinated in Serbia, mostly Russians.

Both Serbia and Russia have seen COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations at record levels in past weeks amid low vaccination rates and authorities unwilling to reimpose restrictive measures. In Russia, the daily coronavirus death toll surpassed 900 for a second straight day. Serbia is coping with a daily death toll of 50 people in the country of 7 million with a confirmed 1 million infections.